Content marketing comes in many different forms. Not only can you create blogs, social media posts and videos, you should start thinking about creating a podcast. Podcasts are currently the fastest growing form of communication, with 7.1 million people in the UK listening to them. They are great for engaging with people remotely, particularly during the Coronavirus pandemic. Research suggests that there is more potential with podcasts than with video, so it is important to consider these within your content marketing.

The first thing you might be thinking is all that money you have to invest into equipment. You can in fact record a podcast with nothing more than your phone or computer. We’ll discuss this more later on.

Questions to ask yourself

To start with, break down who you want to target, the topics you’re going to cover and what you want to get out of creating a podcast.

• Who you want to reach?
• Where are your audience based?
• What are they interested in?
• What do you want to get out of creating a podcast?

On every show, make sure you provide subscription options to ensure your audience follow and keep up with your latest recordings. To help build a relationship with your returning audience, make sure each show is unique and authentic. As a business, you will want to come across as professional, but be sure not to be too formal as your audience don’t want to be listening to robots.

Tips and tricks

Here are some of our tips and tricks to creating a podcast that is worth knowing about when you start your own. If you invite guests onto your show, always have a pre-interview call with them. This will familiarise both of you with how the podcast will run during the real thing and also test your technology. During the recording of the podcast, set yourself a reminder for when your guest is due on.

We recommend recording your introduction and ending separately. You can then edit and refine all your recordings once you have all the content. When transitioning between the different conversations within your podcast, try using sound effects. This is not only engaging for your audience, but it clearly demonstrates a new topic. Finally, try to vary the length of each podcast. You don’t have to stick to the same structure every time you record a show.

Recording process

Before you press record, you will have to decide whether you want to record a video podcast, or just have audio. This is completely your choice as all podcasts are different. Be sure to pick the option that works best for what you want to achieve.

There are a number of applications you can use to record your podcast, and they don’t have to be really expensive either. In fact, there are many FREE applications you can use to record your podcasts. One application is Zoom, which also lets you record audio separately to video. Another application is Skype, Quicktime (for Mac) or voice recorder (for PC). If you’re thinking about recording your podcast with a phone, another great application to consider is Trint.

Always use headphones when you record your podcast. It is important to remember to ask any guests to do the same. This is because using headphones significantly blocks out any background noise. This not only makes your podcast clearer and easy to listen to, but it is sounds much more professional.

Here is an example outline of the structure to use for your podcast:

Intro – introduces yourself and explains what you’re going to be talking about

Intro music – make sure this is the same on each podcast so your audience with soon identify the jingle with your show.

Topic 1 

Topic 2

Interlude – take a break and play music for about 30 seconds.

Topic 3

Topic 4

Closing – thank your audience and introduce the next show

Closing music – make sure this is the same as the intro music

Once you have recorded your podcast, it’s time to put it all together. A great tool to edit your podcast is Audacity. This is a free software that works on all types of computers.

Uploading your podcast

You’re now ready to upload your podcast for everyone to hear! We always recommend uploading it to the most commonly used streaming services to order to maximise your exposure. This includes Spotify, Google and iTunes. All 3 applications provide analytics for you to monitor the performance and success of your podcast.

Some other considerations are to provide transcripts for each of your podcasts. Secondly, add a description into each show that includes links to either your profile or your company website. This allows listeners to find out more about you if they’d like to. Finally, always embed the latest show into your website. This means people can discover your podcasts more easily, whether it’s existing customers and a potential new audience.

Start your podcast today!

Here at onefoursix, we’re happy to discuss how best to start your podcast and answer any questions you may have. Get in touch here.